[Merc] Pierce

For a while now I have been thinking of this merc idea that I personally think could be a nice edition to the game. The idea came to me during one of splash damages streams when a lot of people said they wanted a merc that used a bow and I felt I could come up with something. And with that little backstory I introduce to you, Peirce

(Whenever i type // it means its a comment to explain something that might be unclear)

Remember to write what you think of this merc idea and come with suggestions on what you think needs changing.

Peirce is a recon merc that specializes in giving his a team a tactical advantage by revealing his enemies with the help of science and his trusty bow.

Peirces main weapon is his compund bow. Whats special about this weapon is how its rate of fire works. When you press left click Peirce starts charging up the shot. After charging it for 2 second the shot will deal a maximum of a 100 damage, but if the shot is charged for longer then that the damage will decay until it only does 30 damage. Remember that you can still shoot without charging. If you do, the arrow will deal 50 damage. Also something very important to remember is that the arrow travels in an arch and not straight like bullet from guns. The charging mechanic will be indicated by a bar under the crosshair.

// When thinking of a primary weapon for Peirce I first thought of using a shotgun or an SMG ( small one like sparks) and making the bow a ability. But then I scraped the idea since I felt that giving a character that focuses on long range a weapon that makes him good a close range would just make him somewhat overpowered.

As a secondary Perice can equip the following weapons:
The Selbstadt .40
the Simeon .357
and the Tølen MP
// My reason for picking these secondaries for Peirce are that with these weapons you have a good way to defend against players that coming to close to comfort and so that each player can pick a secondary depending on there preference in aim. Want to spray some fools, pick the Tølen. Want to be precise, pick the selbstadt. Need heavy damage at really close range, pick the Simeon. Something for everyone.

And for melee wepons Perice can equip the following melee weapons
Beckhill Combat Knife
the kukri
and Stilnotto Stiletto

Perice's answer to a recon ability is his shrapnel arrow. The arrow itself can not deal any damage but when the arrow hit any surface the arrow will explode and launch pieces of radioactive shrapnel that stick onto his enemies and will stay there for 20 seconds. These tiny pieces of metal won't do anything by them selfs but when they are paired up with Perice's second ability the are really dangerous for the enemy team.

Radiation tracker:
Button: E

By pressing E Peirce picks up his radiation tracker. When this is equipped all enemies that has been hit with a radioactive shrapnel explosion will be marked for as long as the duration is still up and if the tracker is still equipped.
When the tracker is equipped you can not shoot with any of your weapons.

// When I first thought of an ability for Peirce I had an idea that he could increase his health and make his arrows travel straight as I thought of it it would make more scene to have a ability that had some real use for a recon merc. So I decided of making a new way of tracking that is more helpful for the team more then it is helpful for Perice himself. I made it this way since I see way to many players playing Vasili or Redeye just trying to rack up as many kills as they can instead of being helpful to the team and for instance placing heartbeat sensor somewhere useful or covering with smoke grenade.

Augments

Perice can equip these augments with loadout cards:

Big ears

Bomb Squad

Explodydendron

Flying pig

Guardian angel

Looter

Spares

unshakable

quick switch

// These are only suggestions, suggest any augments you would like to switch out or add.

Misc

Story: Peirce used to be an Irish scientist studying the effects of radiation poisoning on humans. But his experiments got shut down when the Irish government thought his experiments were to dangerous to research after Peirce manged to kill most of his colleges when he by mistake detonate a shrapnel grenade made with an extremely radioactive material. But when there was talk of that London had most of its streets covered in radiation gas Perice decide to become a mercenary so he could hopefully get a chance to study the streets of London and what had occurred there.

Quotes:

Introduction quote: "Names Perice. First class scientist and madman"

Special taunt nr 1: "*Whistles to sound like a falling bomb* *Simulates sounds like bomb explodes*"

@Samniss_Arandeen GG is rght i do it with alla rrow mercs.....
But if i was to be honset.its a good idea.
the bow seems balanced and the shrapnel and tracker seem liek usefulll...
its overall good.
But i am again alergic to arrow mercs

@Samniss_Arandeen GG is rght i do it with alla rrow mercs.....
But if i was to be honset.its a good idea.
the bow seems balanced and the shrapnel and tracker seem liek usefulll...
its overall good.
But i am again alergic to arrow mercs

Thank you dude for clearing that up, i felt somewhat hurt when you posted that so it's nice to see that you like the idea

Vassili has the Sniper rifile with is much more effective than the arrow ( More accurate , More Rate of Fire and more Ammo . His secondary gun are also the best ones )
His ability of throwing the heart beat sensor is easy and has much more range .

secondly , Lets compare him with Sparks . Since the Arrow and its charging ability is much similar to her reviver gun .

Spark's reviver gun is effective in long range , but weaker than the Sniper rifile .
But instead she could heal and revive the team mates which is the main purpose , and makes her a very useful merc .

But when coming to Pierce , his primary weapon is comparatively weaker than other recons and his ability is not strong enough .

Launching the Shrapnel arrow is not so hard . But holding the Radiation tracker for a long 20 seconds is boring . I know its useful to the team but c'mon who will use it when vassili and red eye can track the enemies much easier . The Explosion radius of the Shrapnel is also very small and not a guaranteed hit on multiple enemies . So most of the time you have to hold the Radiation tracker for marking 1 or 2 enemies .

But i have to agree that his Quotes for abilities are so hilarious . And the back story of his science experiments was thoughtful , though there is no written story on how the scientist became an Archer

Now , i'm not trying to see it negative and criticize the wonderful thought. I always liked the idea of Bow and Arrow and i love using it ( being a huge fan of the phantom bow in BF4 ) . But i wanted to share my thoughts and try help you make your merc better ? maybe.

Peirce is a recon merc that specializes in giving his a team a tactical advantage by revealing his enemies with the help of science and his trusty bow.

Peirces main weapon is his compund bow. Whats special about this weapon is how its rate of fire works. When you press left click Peirce starts charging up the shot. After charging it for 2 second the shot will deal a maximum of a 100 damage, but if the shot is charged for longer then that the damage will decay until it only does 30 damage. Remember that you can still shoot without charging. If you do, the arrow will deal 50 damage. Also something very important to remember is that the arrow travels in an arch and not straight like bullet from guns. The charging mechanic will be indicated by a bar under the crosshair.

The bow has lower range than a sniper rifle, needs proper aim and arc prediction to hit, plus the proper timing for it to deal maximum damage and movement prediction of the target. I say that if it is implemented like this it'll just be an even less played merc than Red-Eye. It's just too high skill for very little reward.

I say make it rewarding. Since it's an ability on cool down, there's no issue with making it powerful. Make it a one shot straight sniping ability. No arc to predict, easier for the player and easier for the devs to program with the current state of the game). Then I'd rank it up to an 80 or even 100 HP of base damage, with a charged 160 or even 200HP of damage. Think of it: it has a cool down, so cannot be abused and requires aim to hit, if you miss you need to wait for the cool down again. Also, having an ability that can one hit a Rhino would finally add a merc than can effectively counter him.

Finally, I don't really like the duality between either killing or spotting. I'd rather have every arrow send out radioactive shrapnel and anyone hit by it would simply not be able to be healed or to regain health for the next 10 s or so.

For spotting I'd give him a second type of arrow, that does 10HP of damage base. It basically acts as a 360 degree camera. Where you shoot it, it'll grant an instant indication of enemies within its flight path's line of sight.

Of course it would all have to be balanced in numbers but I'd rather see this happen.

The charging mechanic should instead of being a indicated by a bar below the crosshair, it should be a bar on the arrow itself, something looking like sparks revive gun. The further you charge the further the bar reaches and at the top it woul be red and at the lowest it would be green. When you the charge starts decaying the bar would start going down until it reaches 0. The arrow and the merc itself would also look much more futuristic and fancy compared to just another compound bow (thinking of Crysis bow right now, even though it looks friggin' sick!).

Thank all of you for very helpful comment on the matter. It's so nice to see that people can criticize an idea without sounding harsh. Of course I will edit the merc based on this feedback and also IF this merc gets in (probably not but hey, you can always dream right?) splashdamage will probably change a few things. HOWEVER, the bow as a primary is still going to be a thing as I still feel it would be a tiny bit overpowered to have a primary and a long ranged bow. So hopefully I can get your guys opinion when the coming "buff" to Peirce is "live"

Thank you for your help

Also 3 thing

1. Thank you to @MissMurder for checking out the idea. Really means a lot when someone respected and beloved by community says something nice about once idea.
2. Let's just say that steroid were involved in how Peirce started using a bow, but I was not if I could mention that in his lore.
And 3. Does anyone here know any good concept artists?

1.5 seconds to reload? You could shoot more than two arrows in that span.
Granted that bow probably does't have a lot of draw weight to it, but considering you're using a compound bow neither does it (it gets most it's power from the pulley system so doesn't need to be heavy).

Ammo capacity also seems really low. The average quiver can hold 40 arrows though supposedly there are quivers that can hold up to 60 arrows.

I think the bow should be its own power much like the REVIVR but than have trick arrows as a toggle switch ability. This way you can have tagger arrows, HE arrows, etc. with a counter (all the trick arrows are on the same cooldown).

Reading through this, I was a little disappointed finding out it was ANOTHER archer merc, but Pierce's gameplay stands out from all the other similar fan mercs I've seen! I LOVE the idea of radioactive arrows; perhaps arrow shards also causing status effects (poison damage, no healing, slow movement) might be a fun gameplay dynamic?

Right now, Pierce is probably my favorite archer merc alongside @Samniss_Arandeen 's Mimic due to how thought out everything is.

@Grave Knight well do keep in mind that this guy is a scientist not a pro archer, the only reason he is an archer is so he can stick in needles in his enemies body . Also his quiver is so small because it would seem really overpowered to have about 40-60 tries to hit an arrow that can deal up to a hundred damage and maybe even 200 after a few quick updates. But still thank you for your insight on the matter. Nice to see that you are thinking of this short of thing. The reload time will probably be lowered thanks to you.

Amateur (Noun): A person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science as to music or painting; especially one who cultivates any study or art, from taste or attachment, without pursuing it professionally.

Nah, thats so sweet, thank you @Samniss_Arandeen i will make sure to make some form of easter egg of mimic for you. We archer merc creators must stick together. YOU HEAR THAT @astoundingShellfish WE WILL GET AN ARCHER MERC INTO THIS GAME IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!!!

"Grave Knight" well do keep in mind that this guy is a scientist not a pro archer, the only reason he is an archer is so he can stick in needles in his enemies body . Also his quiver is so small because it would seem really overpowered to have about 40-60 tries to hit an arrow that can deal up to a hundred damage and maybe even 200 after a few quick updates. But still thank you for your insight on the matter. Nice to see that you are thinking of this short of thing. The reload time will probably be lowered thanks to you.

If he's not a skilled archer than I'd wonder why he would use a bow. Bows require a lot of skill just to be decent with. Might want to consider a crossbow instead (keeps to the core of the game).

As for the quiver size, this is why I suggest making it a power instead. Have it similar to the REVIVR only with the battery replaced with an endurance meter.

Might want to consider a crossbow instead (keeps to the core of the game).

As for the quiver size, this is why I suggest making it a power instead. Have it similar to the REVIVR only with the battery replaced with an endurance meter.[/quote]

Actually the crossbow idea might be a good alternative weapon, or even stock weapon. So for those that want more aimed shots and magazines instead of just 1 shot per mag. But the bow will still be a thing, i said he wasn't a pro archer not a bad one (well maybe) . But your help with this has been extremely helpful. Try to check out the updated version of this whenever i will write that. Like most people here you have been a great help. So thank you

"Grave Knight" well do keep in mind that this guy is a scientist not a pro archer, the only reason he is an archer is so he can stick in needles in his enemies body . Also his quiver is so small because it would seem really overpowered to have about 40-60 tries to hit an arrow that can deal up to a hundred damage and maybe even 200 after a few quick updates. But still thank you for your insight on the matter. Nice to see that you are thinking of this short of thing. The reload time will probably be lowered thanks to you.

If he's not a skilled archer than I'd wonder why he would use a bow. Bows require a lot of skill just to be decent with. Might want to consider a crossbow instead (keeps to the core of the game).

As for the quiver size, this is why I suggest making it a power instead. Have it similar to the REVIVR only with the battery replaced with an endurance meter.

You know i might add a crossbow as an alternate weapon. It not a bad idea and might help for those player that want to have rapid fire. Also what I meant by he not being a pro archer is that he might not have won any contests but the reasons he enjoys the weapon to the point where he wants to take it into a gunfight is the fact that he likes shoving sharp objects into peoples skull. Will probably update his lore so there won't be any confusion about that. Anyways thanks for your help. Will definitely consider your ideas in the update version of Peirce